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Everything old is new again. There is nothing new under the sun. Especially not the forthcoming rant.

REASON NO. 675 FOR WHY MLB IS BETTER THAN NFL… Tonight in Kansas City, subservient NFL fans will pay full boat to watch bad football. Check that. Not bad football, necessarily, but football featuring guys who will be looking for their life's work in a few weeks.

The NFL can do this because its fans are cattle, and its march toward world domination continues unimpeded. Here's what the league should do:

Let 'em in for free.

Nothing. Nada. Zero. Pocket lint.

Anyone who has never been to a game, and because of the cost never will, give him a ticket. Anyone who either (1) buys a premium football package for his TV (2) spends his Sundays eating wings and drinking beer at an Establishment (3) owns some gear or (4) has a pulse and likes football, give him a free pass.

The NFL can say it gives away its games now, mostly. But the creep away from free, network TV is steady and ongoing. The NFL can suggest supply and demand rules. It could also do something decent, without a narrowed, cynical eye toward marketing and PR.

I'll give the NFL the benefit of the doubt and say that's actually possible.

Baseball charges for spring games, sure. Not full price. Eight bucks or so gets you a ticket in Goodyear. And the players are infinitely more approachable for fan interaction.

If you pay, say, $70 for games in September, you shouldn't have to pay $70 for games in August. You don't go see Phantom at the Aronoff for the same price as Broadway. The actors at the Aronoff aren't Broadway.

You pay $70 to see Dalton, Atkins and Green, not Larry, Curly and Moe.

Let 'em in for nothing.

Think of the PR statement that would make. America's Game is for all Americans! You don't have to be a corporate thickwallet sucking imported beers in a lux box, or a guy taking out a second mortgage for his four on the 40. Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to see a game in person before they die.

The league could use some good PR about now. (Though nothing short of mass homicide is going to derail the present NF of L juggernaut. The Ray Rice Thing is a pebble in the sea.) It could benefit from any hint that it's more than a corporate monolith.

Won't happen, you say?

Of course it won't.

Doesn't mean The Man can't dream. As Boogie said to Bagel in Diner, "If you don't have dreams, Bagel, you have nightmares.''

Now, then. . .

REDS WIN AGAIN… Don't look now. But The Club is 4 out and 3 out of the WC. It takes any team awhile to come to grips with big injuries. It's as much a psychological hammer as physical. Does it seem to you that the Reds are getting accustomed to playing without Votto and DDBP? That role-players are adapting to expanded roles?

Pena – who seems to get a big hit whenever one is needed – Santiago, now Negron. They shouldn't be winning with these guys, even half the time. But lately they are. Are things settling down? Or is it simply a case of ratty Indians starting pitching and superb (minus Simon) starting by the Reds?

Is anyone still making the argument that The Club needs more than one potent bat to make a relevant run at October?

3. Mt. Carmel Blonde. I've never had a Mt. Carmel beer I didn't like. This one doesn't have the heft of the previous two, but it's smooth and easy on the head.

4. Rivertown Helles. Not technically a summer soda, but close enough. All seasons, all reasons beer. (If you want a better alternative, I suggest RBC's session IPA, L'il Sipa.)

5. Moerlein Zeppelin. A little strong for a summer brew, at least for my tastes. Of course, my tastes run toward Keystone Light, so take my judgments with a grain of salt. And a shot of Jameson.

THE PRACTICED RANT OF AN OG, OR?. . . K-State football coach Bill Snyder, to the AP:

"It's changed. I mean, college athletics, football in particular, has changed dramatically over the years," Snyder said. "I think we've sold out. We're all about dollars and cents.

"The concept of college football no longer has any bearing on the quality of the person, the quality of students. Universities are selling themselves out."

Snyder voiced his thoughts one day before the NCAA board of directors is to vote on a proposal giving the five wealthiest college football conferences -- among them the Big 12, which counts Kansas State among its membership -- the ability to make rules and pass legislation without the approval of the rest of Division I schools.

The autonomy proposal is expected to pass.

"It's no longer about education," Snyder said. "We've sold out to the cameras over there, and TV has made its way, and I don't fault TV. I don't fault whoever broadcasts games. They have to make a living and that's what they do, but athletics -- that's it. It's sold out."

If the legislation passes, UC and its AAC brethren become the minor leagues. A very good chance that the Big 5 will offer money to players that UC simply couldn't afford to do. Future TV deals likely would involve Big 5s and few others.

As for Snyder's remarks, they're dead on. . . and about 20 years late in arriving. College sports sold out to TV a long time ago.

More Snyder:

"Everybody is building Taj Mahals," Snyder said, "and I think it sends the message -- and young people today I think are more susceptible to the downside of that message, and that it's not about education. We're saying it is, but it's really about the glitz and the glitter, and I think sometimes values get distorted that way. I hate to think a young guy would make a decision about where he's going to get an education based on what a building looks like."

The obvious solution is to ditch permanently the "student-athlete'' fairy tale. The Big 5 might be moving toward that reality, and that's OK. Make football players employees of the university. Pay them a salary, give them room and board. If they want to get a degree, make them pay for their education, like everyone else. Get loans, use some of their football pay. Whatever. If they actually get the degree, reimburse them.

That way, they have a stake in going to class, beyond simply staying eligible.

My guess is, about 90 percent of the football players will take the salary and the free room and board and never darken a classroom door. That's OK, too. Great, in fact, as it lays waste to the current hypocrisy.

Andy Dalton is being paid $25 million for the next two seasons. The Cincinnati Reds are paying four players more than $24 million over two years (2015-16): Joey Votto, Brandon Phillips, Homer Bailey and Jay Bruce. The Reds bring in roughly $200 million less in revenue per year than the Bengals do -- figures on this vary because until leagues open their books, we're really just guessing -- and they still have four players who make more than Dalton.

And -- this is key -- they have to be paid after that. Bruce is a free agent after 2016, and there's no way, assuming Bruce continues to hit as he has (or even slightly worse), that the Reds will be able to re-sign him for the $10.7 million the Bengals can get Dalton for. Votto, Phillips and Bailey -- they are due a collective $149 million after 2016. That's not fake money. That's real money. And it is guaranteed. That has to be paid even if each of them decide they're all going to start throwing with their opposite hand from now on.

Dalton? If Dalton stinks -- or even if he's fine but the Bengals drafted a quarterback they'd like to try out instead -- he'll be dropped like it was nothing and not owed a cent. And they can do this every year!